RI Hospital Gave Wrong Body to Funeral Home After Grandmother Dies
GoLocalProv News Team
RI Hospital Gave Wrong Body to Funeral Home After Grandmother Dies
Emilia Severino passed away at Rhode Island Hospital on December 30, after having been in the hospital’s trauma intensive care unit for five days. The fire took another life, and two others were hospitalized.
That was tragic enough. What has made things worse are the facts outlined in a lawsuit filed by the grandmother’s family against Brown Health and a Providence funeral home.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in Providence Superior Court.
Wrong Body
“Incredibly, when Bell Funeral Home came to pick up her body, Rhode Island Hospital gave them the wrong remains. Bell Funeral Home, for its part, never verified that it had the correct body, and, it appears, never even opened the body bag the remains were in. The [Severino’s family] then held a graveside, closed-casket burial of their beloved mother, not knowing that inside the casket was not their mother, but instead some other person’s remains. The wrong body was buried,” states the lawsuit.
“When Rhode Island Hospital realized its error, the body was exhumed and brought back to Rhode Island Hospital. [Severino’s family] were present at all times. Rhode Island Hospital eventually found the correct body, and in the hospital, [Severino’s family] opened the body bag and visually identified their mother – her body naked from the waist down, a femoral central venous catheter and its bandage still attached to her leg, bandages on her arms. Bell Funeral Home then drove that body, in that same condition, back to the gravesite, dropped the grandmother’s body bag into the casket, and unceremoniously lowered and buried the casket,” according to the lawsuit.
“As a direct result of Rhode Island Hospital and Bell Funeral Home’s negligence and extreme and outrageous conduct, the [Severino’s family] have suffered severe emotional distress, were deprived of their ability to mourn their mother properly, and of the ability to treat her passing and her remains with the respect they deserve as their mother passed to the other side. And then they were re-traumatized all over again, when the remains were exhumed and then the proper remains quickly re-buried,” added the lawsuit.
A spokesperson for Rhode Island Hospital said in a statement:
An error occurred in Rhode Island Hospital’s morgue on January 15th where a decedent was released to the wrong funeral home. The hospital contacted the families impacted by this incident to extend our deepest sympathies and apologies.
Once we became aware of this error, the hospital immediately initiated a comprehensive internal review. As a result of that review, the employee involved was let go. While Rhode Island Hospital has strict policies and procedures governing all morgue operations, we are committed to strengthening our processes, including implementing additional safeguards, to ensure this does not happen again.
Due to patient privacy laws, Rhode Island Hospital is unable to provide additional details at this time.
Brown Health self-reported the violation to the Rhode Island Department of Health. And, according to the lawsuit, “Rhode Island Hospital reported Bell Funeral Home to the Rhode Island licensure board that oversees Bell Funeral Home and its funeral director due to the funeral home’s actions in this matter.”
Bell Funeral Home states that the fault for the mistake rests with the hospital.
“Bell Funeral Home shares in the disappointment and sadness experienced by the family of the deceased as a result of errors by RI Hospital ( Brown Health). Bell Funeral Home has been a loyal and committed part of the local community and always places the needs of family members first in their time of sadness and grief. We are sincerely angry and upset at the mistakes made by the hospital in this instance, and we have done everything we can to help the family members through this unacceptable lapse. Bell fully relied on the process and procedures in place at the hospital, and it is apparent that those procedures were either inadequate or ignored by the hospital staff entrusted with the critical and sacred duty to get this right. Bell will continue to work with the family throughout this difficult time,' said Bill Lynch, Attorney for the Bell Funeral Home.
Severino’s family is asserting in its lawsuit that Brown Health and Bell are guilty of Negligence, Negligent Hiring, Training, Supervision, and/or Retention, Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress, and Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress.
This story was first published 2/18/26 2:33 PM